Cambridge University defends PM Manmohan Singh on his criticism

CHANDIGARH: The Cambridge University of UK, where PM Manmohan Singh had earned a first class degree in Economics in 1957, has come to defend their "proud alumnus" after a leading foreign daily and magazine had launched a stinging criticism of him.

The university's vice-chancellor, who is in India on an official visit, on Thursday described Singh - who has been facing unrelenting resignation demands from the BJP over coal and 2G spectrum issues - as an individual with 'high standards in public life' and with 'erudite academics'.

"Let me say at the outset that PM Singh is a man with great emergent leadership in the worlds' biggest democracy. I have had several interactions with him in the past. He's a man with erudite academics" asserted Cambridge V-C Leszek Boryseiwiczh, while speaking exclusively to TOI in Chandigarh.

He was at a function organised by the Sikh religious body Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee in the state capital..

The US daily Washington Post had on Wednesday published a sharply critical dubbing the PM "a dithering, ineffectual bureaucrat presiding over a deeply corrupt government".

Spin doctors of the Congress party including the union I&B minister Ambika Soni and PM's media advisor Pankaj Pachauri had reacted fast and furiously to the article.

Earlier, the Time magazine had drawn a similar scathing assessment of Singh.

Boryseiwiczh, while refusing to comment on the merits of the two articles, said that his university would be always be proud of their alumnus.

"I have not read those comments in the Washington Post about him. It will be inappropriate to comment on details of the news published on the political strife he might be in but as an individual he is very good. In terms of our university, we are proud that he is the alumnus of our university. We are very delighted that he also shares the same feeling," pointed out. Several scholarships are run to offer meritorious students wanting to study at Cambridge university.

The V-C also said that he would be meeting the PM Manmohan Singh next week.

Boryseiwiczh, who has been invited by the SGPC to visit the Sikh-body run educational institutions, and to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, also asserted that Sikhs were a hard-working community and had scaled new highs in various parts of world.

"We have taken some landmark initiatives in creating opportunities for students of SGPC institutions to pursue higher education in our university. Such tie-ups will be generated so that more Sikh students can get an opportunity to join this honorable university," he added.